Zoom-in Online

I like to improvise and wing things. Photography is no exception, and I'm sure it often appears as if I show up unprepared for photoshoots. This is not the case however, I just like to do my prep ahead of time. The big idea is, that I can play around with several ideas, commit some to memory and execute whatever I want during the actual shoot.

I often sit down and draw sketches of the poses and angles, I'd like to cover during an upcoming shoot. The drawings are very rough, basically stick figures with a little added detail. Under each one, I add a small note to remind me what I'm going for, in case the drawing turns out to be too crude. I might also go over older drawings from previous shoots, finding ideas there that I'd forgotten.

Other times, I will sit down and just list out shoot ideas. It doesn't matter if they fit with my usual style or not. The important thing is to get the mind working. And then when it comes time to do the shoot itself, I will put all my notes and ideas away and focus on my subject. Afterwards, I might compare the results to my sketches and notes. There are always several shots, I didn't get around to doing, but at the same time, there are shots that grew out of the moment, that were not in my notes. I like those most of all, which is why I don't refer to my notebook during the actual shoot. If I did, I fear I'd get caught in only doing those pictures, thus limiting my on-the-spot creativity.

The photo above was lifted from my Moleskine set on Flickr.

Rasmus Rasmussen is on loan from iStockphoto, where he is part of the image inspection team.